During one of my forays into internet groups, a question came up about "speaking math" to one's child when math is not one's forte. I addressed it briefly and invited more specific questions with the idea that I might begin a series of blog posts about connecting with children on the topic of math in a variety of situations. The invitation was largely ignored, but that's fine, I'm doing it anyway. AND, I could use any input from you: What's useful or not useful? What would you like to see? This has been an interest of mine and I would love to know the ideas that are helpful and why. So, please and thank you, post any constructive feedback in the 'comments' section.
There is the idea that, while not new -- there is documentation of it from a journal of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics from 1938 -- has come to my attention in the past year or so. The idea circulated by professionals and scholars originally was that of postponing formal mathematics education until age 10 or later. In homeschooling circles, however, I have heard the idea expressed as postponing mathematics until age 10-12. But there is a huge difference between postponing formal math education and postponing math education at all!
It is true that once a child realizes the value of money, he or she begins to explore the ideas behind adding, subtracting, and grouping. But we use math every day much more than for just counting our coins. The thing is, most of us use math in our heads where it is invisible to the people around us. Just as we surround children with books to support literacy and a love of reading, we need to surround children with math to support numeracy and a love of mathematical concepts and processes. More than surrounding them, we need to live it, to share it, to engage with it, to play with it, with our children and in front of our children. This series will talk about specifics of intentionally creating a culture that embraces math.
Our just-turned 15yos hasn't done much for math, and when he did it was extremely frustrating to him and brought tears.
ReplyDeleteBut he has learned some maths via robotics and K'Nex, and life itself. He is currently building a 16ft dory boat by himself (a little adult input when needed or asked for) and helping his dad build a garage and later a house. He's now come to understand many math concepts/applications by figuring out how to cut a compound angle, etc.
My perspective is that he now OWNS that information vs being able to regurgitate it on a worksheet.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. That is awesome. It is SO important to own the information. Sounds like you have yourself a builder. Plenty of math in that! I imagine geometry in the K'Nex? Did he program the robots himself?
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